Perese Try Stops Warriors
Alate try escape through Izaia Perese rescued their trial against the Fiji Airways Fijian Warriors but could not disguise how much work the remodelled Reds have to do to be a factor in Super Rugby this season.
The Reds snuck home 17-15 at Ballymore but their dire ball control when fumbling the slippery ball in sapping humidity meant no one could get a read on the team’s attacking arsenal. Winger Perese has stood tall throughout the pre-season trials and he did again on Thursday night.
The Fijian Warriors had rallied from 10-0 down after eight minutes to lead 15-10 before the super-solid Reds scrum did the trick.
After a rash of penalties and strong scrums in the Fijian quarter, replacement flyhalf Hamish Stewart steered the play left with a cutout pass to Teti Tela who put Perese over. Stewart’s angled conversion saved plenty of red faces because there will be a far tougher opponent waiting in Melbourne in a week when the Reds open Super Rugby against Will Genia and the Melbourne Rebels.
The best that can be said about the Reds’ effort was to applaud the diligent defence when a Fijian side, a step below the nation’s Test team, had all the ball for the opening 20 minutes of the second half plus the efficient scrum and lineout work. Centre Duncan Paia’aua’s front-on tackle was a special while, earlier, first-start flyhalf Jono Lance had been strong with his tackling.
“I was pretty excited all day for this game but it was quite a frustrating one away from the good things we did in defence, the set piece and the communication,” Lance said.
“I’ve been around a few teams now and I can definitely say I’m looking forward to this season with confidence after what I’ve seen in just four weeks at the club.”
Lance made the strong angled run that set up the early try for prop Taniela Tupou but admitted he was feeling his way with the team in match conditions when playing with halfback James Tuttle for the first time. The sweatbox conditions triggered a rash of poor handling because it was still 27 degrees at a stifling 86 per cent humidity when half-time arrived at 8pm.
Only those fans at the bar got chilled relief with the famous hill dressed up in the livery of the Newstead Brewing Company, Ballymore’s new craft beer sponsor.
The first half did clarify that Aidan Toua will be the Reds fullback in the opening round of Super Rugby after he made two short but sharp dashes and added a real energy at the back. Reds coach Brad Thorn shared the lament of the 1500 fans at the ground.
“You can’t build anything if you can’t control the ball. Yeah, the ball was like soap but you have wet, slippery conditions in New Zealand so you’ve got to learn fast,” Thorn said. “Composure is going to be key for us and credit at the end because it was the young boys (of 19, 20 and 21) playing some of the best minutes.
“Full kudos to the Fijians, they are big men who are all good carriers of the ball so we had to tackle.”
REDS 17 (T Tupou, I Perese tries; J Tuttle con, pen goal, H Stewart con) bt
FIJIAN WARRIORS 15 (T Vugakoto, R Navuma tries; E Malele con, pen goal)